I had sold my boat in Canada, a 27 foot Catalina, during the summer of last year, and by the spring of this year I really missed owning a boat. I turned to eBay. There was a 27 foot Watkins sailboat for auction in Virginia with no minimum price set. The auction progressed, and with only a couple of days to go the bid stayed very low. Finally, as the last seconds ticked by, I jumped in - and won it for $1,100.

It was in late September when I flew to Norfolk to take possesion. I wondered, what do you get for $1,100? It was almost dark when I finally got to Southall Landings Marina in Hampton, and Earl, the dockmaster kindly helped me to get oriented, and showed me the location of the berth the boat was in. The boat looked like an orphan in the evening gloom, and when I opened the hatch boards I half expected to see water sloshing around inside - but I was lucky because the water in the bilge was just below the floorboards. I had no electrical power or lights, but I slept onboard that night. The next morning I could see the boat needed a lot of work. I have been living aboard, cleaning, sewing, painting, and varnishing, and it has started to look habitable. I plan to sail it on the ICW down to Georgia.

I have been asked my reaction to seeing the boat that first time, and I tell them: "It's not as good as I hoped, but not as bad as I feared."

Hello Squidd: We both had similar experiences with eBay, luckily for us they were both positive. I see you have an AMF PY26. For a while I was looking for a PY27, but could only find one, and that was for about $6,000, too much for me. So I went on the web and got the Watkins27 sight unseen.

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